Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 15.djvu/349

PAPACY. tinued to pay deference to an institution so caielcss of its own ti-edit and its own future.

Two causes were destined to bring the I'apacy once again into the great currents ot Eun)|)ean Christianity. The lirst uf these was the renewal of the iMupire on a (iernian basis. The entrance of the tsa.xon people into the Latin-Christian culture (c.S.'iO) resulted in a great strengthen- ing of the ])urcly Cierman as distinguished from the half-Komantic elements of the Western world. In yi'J the Cerman kingship passed with Henry I. into Saxon hands. His son Otlio I. ('J37-!I73) took up the kingdom, no longer as a Saxon thane, but as the l)orn King of all Germans, and after twenty-live years of varying success saw his idea of kingship fairly realized. For nearly forty years the Empire had gone begging for a power strong enough to come and take it. In Otho crossed the Alps as of right, and in  was crowned Emperor at Rome by Po])* John XII., whom he soon uncanonically depo.sed on accusations of every possible iniquity. He then caused the 'election' of a capable Roman layman, Leo VI] 1., and maintained him with his sword. He bound the clergy and nobility of Rome by solemn oaths to elect their popes in future 'ca- nonically" and to seek for such election the ap- proval of the Emperor. Thus it was thought to establish a formal balance of rights between these two branches of the highest earthly power. If the Papal sanction lie needed to make the Emperor, no less should Imperial approval be necessary to a valid Papal election. But no sooner was the Imperial camp removed from Rome than all the evils of local factional strife broke out again. To end the perpetual conflict, Otho 111. (!)8:M002), a youth of generous en- thusiasms, tried the experiment of a Roman residence in conjunction with a German pope, Gregory V., of his own making. For a moment the jirnblem seemed solved, but a new outbreak of Roman fuiy drove him from the cit.v to his death.

Meanwhile the Church was developing a new energy through the force of its monastic princi- ple, the sei'imd cause alluded to aliove. The Monastery of Cluny in Burgmidy began from its foundation about 010 to exercise an influence upon clerical life quite without precedent. This took the form of a purification of the priestly office by ridding it of the frc(|uent vice of simony and by strictly enforcing the rule of priestly celi- bacy. The reaction of tills movement upon society at large is seen in the etl'orts to bring about the peace of the land known as the 'Peace of Ood' and the 'Truce of God.' In all this great activity the Papacy as .such took no part, but the time came when these ideas took possession of it and made it do their bidding.

The two processes we have noticed — the rise of the Empire and the purification of the Church — come together in the middle of the eleventh century. other period of Papal depression had followed the work of the Othos. and once more the Papacy became the prey of contending local factions. The office was tossed about in shameless 'deals' or by open violence. In the year 104(i three persons were claiming the Papal power on different grounds. The scandal was too great, and the 'Romans' appealed to the Em- peror Henry III. In the synod of Sutri (104f)), held on the borders of the Roman territory, Henry brought about the removal of all three claimants and nominated a worthy German prel- ate who was accepted by the Romans. Two other Germans, also nominated by the Emperor, fol- luwcil in rapid succession. The last uf these was IJruno. Bishop uf Tuul in Lurraine, who as Pope Leo IX. ( 104!l-i')4), and under the guidance of the monk Hildebrand, began the aggressive policy of Cluirch reform through Papal action, which is the most important feature of Papal history for the next century. Though nominated by the Emperor, Leo saw plainly that to succeed he must be free from all outside control and rely upon the old Roman traditions. He began his administration by a journey to France and (Jermany. where in two synods, at Rheiiiis and at Mainz, be proclaimed the articles of the Cluny programme, especially that against simony, and demanded the allegiance of the northern prelates in his crusade against the.se evils. The con- science of Europe, roused already by the work of the monastic reformers, responded with satis- factory readiness. At Rome Leo IX. found him- self involved in an entirely new political situa- tion. The Norman conquciors of Southern Italy had reached a point in their expansion where it was important for them to have a definite legal status. They threatened to encroach upon the Papal territory and actually routed the Pope's army in the battle of Civitate (1053). But the wis(lom of Leo turned this rout into a victory by persuading the Xormans to become the vassals of the Holy See on condition that their power, within certain limits, should be recognized as a legitimate sovereignty.

The sense of Papal right as paramount is seen still more plainly in the action of Nicholas II. (1058-(il). To check the disorders consequent upon the Papal elections and to establish the electoral process on a firm and permanent basis, he procured the passage at the synod of 1059 of a decree whereby the election of the Po])e was henceforth to be in charge of the Roman 'cardi- nals,' including members from all three clerical orders. The initiative was to lie with these, but they were then to procure the assent of the 'Roman people.' and a certain undefined right of partici]iation was reserved to the Emperor, On these three elements — the Roman cardinals, the Roman people, and the Roman Emperor — rested the Papal constitution for the next two hundred years. The greatest conflicts of this period arose from attempts to define more pre- cisely the limits of each element. On the whole, the cardinalate gained steadily upon the other factors, and succeeded ultimately in winning exclusive control, not, however, without de- cisive modifications in its own make-U]).

The Pa|)acy was now definitely committed to the work of reform. The influence of Hildelirand grows more and more perceptible. Under his far-seeing direction what had been started as a purely moral movement becomes in the clearest sense a political one as well. Adding to the two articles, of the Cluny programme a third — the prohibition of lay investiture — he tomhined all three under the one general demand for the 'free- dom of the Church' from all external control. ( 1 ) The celibacy of the secular clergj' was to be the guarantee that the clergy should be free from all the obligations arising from marriage and the social and economic duties that attend it. (2) The abolition of simony was to make the clergy free from all the complications of worldly